Every man of courage is a man of his word.(The noun phrase 'a man who agreed with me' is the object of the preposition 'from.' Here's the 'pronoun test': I never learned from him.) I never learned from a man who agreed with me.('This man' is the subject of the verb 'has.' The phrase 'a nice smile' is the direct object of 'has.' The noun phrase 'iron teeth' is the direct object of the verb 'got.' Here's the 'pronoun test': He has one, but he's got them.) (Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on Mikhail Gorbachev) This man has a nice smile, but he's got iron teeth.Here are some real-life examples of noun phrases as subjects, objects, and complements: Looking at the examples above, we can replace each noun phrase with a pronoun. We can test this because we know that a noun can be replaced by a pronoun (e.g., he, she, it, them). It follows therefore that a noun phrase functions as a noun in a sentence. So, a noun with any sort of modifier (even it's just 'a' or 'the') is a noun phrase.Ī phrase has at least two words and functions as one part of speech. Ideas: utter confusion, some kindness, your faith, the Theory of Relativity, a joy.Things: this table, our London Bridge, the sharp chisel, that nitrogen, last month, an inch, her cooking.Places: the house in the corner, inner London, dirty factory, no shelter.Animals: that aardvark, one rat, a shark, funny Mickey.People: the soldier, my cousin, dopey Alan, the lawyer with the big nose.

In this list, every noun phrase consists of a head noun (highlighted) and at least one modifier. In real life, it is far more common for nouns to feature in noun phrases, i.e, to be accompanied by modifiers. In other words, there are no noun phrases in this example.) (This example features two nouns without any modifiers. It is rare to find a noun functioning by itself (i.e., without any modifiers) in a sentence. In normal writing, nouns nearly always feature in noun phrases. In the infographic, 'None of us' is another example.)

(This is a noun phrase headed by a pronoun. Note: A noun phrase can also be headed by a pronoun. In a noun phrase, the modifiers can come before or after the noun. What Are Noun Phrases? (with Examples)Ī noun phrase is a group of two or more words headed by a noun that includes modifiers (e.g., 'the,' 'a,' 'of them,' 'with her').Ī noun phrase plays the role of a noun.

List of common verbs